Trusts, trustees, duties and appointment of trustees etcPlease take the time to explore these links. Once you get used to what is provided, the power to enquire about the law is properly substantial. Suggestions for further leading cases, statutes, links and corrections are always welcome. I give my warm thanks to those who have suggested material.

Moody -v- Cox and Hatt; CA 1917 - An action was brought for rescission of a contract of sale of a public house and four cottages, with a counterclaim for specific performance. The sellers, Hatt and Cox, were respectively a solicitor and his managing clerk. They were the trustees of a will trust, and were selling as such. In addition Hatt acted as solicitor for the purchaser Moody. The contract price was £8,400. Moody complained that Cox had failed to disclose to him a valuation showing the property to be worth less than the contract price, and that Cox had expressly asserted that the cottages were worth £225 each when he knew that they were worth less. A ‘clean hands’ issue arose from the fact that Moody had paid two sums of £100 to Cox as a sweetener. Since Hatt and Cox were selling as trustees, they had a duty to their beneficiaries to obtain the best price reasonably obtainable.Pitt and Another -v- Holt and Others; ChD 18-Jan-2010 - The deceased had created a settlement in favour of his wife. He suffered serious injury and placed the damages in trust, but in a form which created an unnecessary liability to Inheritance Tax on his death. The wife’s mental health act receiver now sought the unravelling of the trust based on either Hastings Bass or mistake.Ridgwell and others -v- Ridgwell and others; In Re RGST Settlement Trusts; ChD 14-Nov-2007 - Funds were held upon trust for X with the remainder (in default of exercise of the power of appointment) to his three children aged 7,5 and 2. It was beneficial for tax purposes to insert a life interest in favour of X’s surviving spouse (thereby postponing the interest of the children). An alternative would have been to make outright transfers to the children during the lifetime of X. HHJ Behrens accepted that it was not appropriate to put substantial sums on bare trust for the children given their ages and the fact that they would then have complete control of the assets at the age of 18. That was regarded as a moral hazard, and in preference to that vesting was deferred.Roome -v- Edwards; HL 1982 - A claim was made for the payment of Capital Gains Tax. It was material to that claim to decide whether the exercise of a power of appointment contained in a settlement gave rise to a settlement separate from the main settlement.Selangor United Rubber Estates Ltd -v- Cradock (No 3); ChD 1968 - The expressions ‘constructive trust’ and ‘constructive trustee’ are ‘nothing more than a formula for equitable relief. It is the actual control of assets belonging beneficially to a company which causes the law to treat directors as analogous to trustees of those assets.’

Charities Act 1960 / 58 -|- Case law -|- See Also: CharityAn Act to replace with new provisions the Charitable Trusts Acts, 1853 to 1939, and other enactments relating to charities, to repeal the mortmain Acts, to make further provision as to the powers exercisable by or with respect to charities or with respect to gifts to charity, and for purposes connected therewith.

British Museum Act 1963 / 24 -|- Case lawAn Act to alter the composition of the Trustees of the British Museum, to provide for the separation from the British Museum of the British Museum (Natural History), to make new provision with respect to the regulation of the two Museums and their collections in place of that made by the British Museum Act 1753 and enactments amending or supplementing that Act, and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid.

1964

Perpetuity and Accumulations Act 1964 / 55 -|- Case law -|- See Also: LandAn Act to modify the law of England and Wales relating to the avoidance of future interests in property on grounds of remoteness and governing accumulations of income from property.

1987

Recognition of Trusts Act 1987 / 4 -|- Case lawAn Act to enable the United Kingdom to ratify the Convention on the law applicable to trusts and on their recognition which was signed on behalf of the United Kingdom on 10th January 1986.

Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996 / 47 -|- Case law -|- See Also:, LandAn Act to make new provision about trusts of land including provision phasing out the Settled Land Act 1925, abolishing the doctrine of conversion and otherwise amending the law about trusts for sale of land; to amend the law about the appointment and retirement of trustees of any trust; and for connected purposes

1999

Trustee Delegation Act 1999 / 15 -|- Case law -|- See Also:, Land, AgencyAn Act to amend the law relating to the delegation of trustee functions by power of attorney and the exercise of such functions by the donee of a power of attorney; and to make provision about the authority of the donee of a power of attorney to act in relation to land..